Passive vs. interactive response by leads. Metrics have fostered a lot of discussion with marketers in the last year or two. Those who have adopted marketing automation software have discovered the difference of using data to drive decisions that help them to realize higher returns on marketing investment as well as customer acquisition. CSO Insights’ 2010 Lead Generation Optimization study found that only 37% of marketers using a lead generation management system say their efforts need improvement. Increase in the development of sales opportunities. Revenues and customer acquisition. MORE >>

Lead scoring that includes blog post visits to monitor your prospects’ true interest intensity through their interactions with content beyond what’s available on your corporate website. Social media is that shiny new object that many marketers are rushing to include as a component of their marketing mix. In fact, research shows the budget investments in social media are growing at a steady clip. The good news is that social media is a tool that can wield a lot of power for marketers, if incorporated into their content marketing strategy , not implemented in a stand-alone fashion. MORE >>

One of the benefits of marketing automation is that it provides marketers with the ability to see how prospects interact with their marketing content. If content has been designed to tell a story from beginning, to middle, to the end of a buying process, then the content the prospect interacts with will identify where they are in the process. If their first interactions with your company show them scanning, but their visits become longer in duration, that’s an indication of deepening interest. CD: You talk a lot about telling stories over time with content. Trigger Content. MORE >>

If content has been designed to tell a story from beginning, to middle, to the end of a buying process, then the content the prospect interacts with will identify where they are in the process. Ardath Albee is a B2B Marketing Strategist and CEO of her firm, Marketing Interactions, Inc. Ardath is a frequent industry speaker and the author of the popular Marketing Interactions blog. Here’s what she had to say: Tip 1: Develop a story. Story-telling is one of the most persuasive and compelling ways to convey a message. story has the structure of beginning, middle and end. MORE >>

Knowing how they interact with your content, how often and the length of time they spend with it can provide compelling evidence that they may be ready for a personal conversation. Conversion triggers are those interactions that boost a Lead’s score by a larger percent and can even bypass the standard scoring model. Lead scoring models enable marketers to rank and gauge the quality of Leads based on their importance to the sales team for follow-up. When a Lead hits the threshold set by the model, they can automatically be updated in the CRM for sales pursuit. Interest. minutes.  MORE >>